


west veering north or northwest 5 to 7. moderate or rough. showers. moderate or good.

by kosmokuns



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Surfers, Angst, Catholic Rosary, Coming Out, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, North Cornwall, a lil bit of - Freeform, also tj is a brit, and ghc are american, i made one joke but i had to do it to em, marty is french, okay so, tj is an introvert i will die on this hill, um, yes holy trinity tyrus fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 00:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20518892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kosmokuns/pseuds/kosmokuns
Summary: TJ Kippen spends his summers surfing, working or learning, it doesn’t matter, he just loves it. Agreeing to help out his friend Marty teaching a three day course, he meets someone he had never dreamed of existing.Cyrus Goodman is a pretty usual teenager, tired and gay and always, always waiting for summer. This year he’s gone half way around the world to North Cornwall, England and has somehow been persuaded to try surfing. God save him.





	west veering north or northwest 5 to 7. moderate or rough. showers. moderate or good.

**Author's Note:**

> hi, my name is greta. you might have seen this fic before but i changed my mind and am now posting the entire thing at once.

“Hey TJ!” The sound of feet slapping on the tarmac caused TJ to turn around, “You coming to youth group later?” Marty stood next to him, hand on his shoulder, grinning. TJ smiled back,

“Of course, who would miss you getting the technique wrong for the fifth week in a row?” Marty’s face creased into a scowl,

“Kippen, you are so mean,”

TJ laughed, throwing his head back, Marty continuing to glare, “What? It’s true!”

Marty crossed his arms, “Just because it’s true doesn’t mean you have to bully me over it,”

“Oh bro, it absolutely means that,”

Marty hesitated for a moment, then uncrossed his arms and went back to grinning, “I’m pretending I didn’t hear that for the sake of our friendship. Now, how about coming with me and the boys to the Spoon for an ice cream?”

TJ glanced down at his watch. 4:32pm. Enough time to digest the food before he had to be back out on the water again at 6. 

“Sure,” Marty clapped him on the back, putting his arm around TJ’s shoulder and leading him away to the café, chatting about some mindless nonsense involving his aunties and cousins. 

TJ was grateful to have a friend like Marty, unknowingly loyal and generous, cheerful but also deeply perceptive, he could spot oncoming trouble within moments of a conversation starting thanks to his talent for reading body language. The Kippen family, or what was left of them, was possibly more grateful for Marty than TJ was.

“It’s just like, man, can’t you get a job? Ain’t nobody wants to be cleaning up your bullshit at twenty years old,”

TJ nodded sagely, “Cousin Marius?”

Marty rolled his eyes, “Who else? He’s a total asshole and he won’t even let me borrow his PS4!”

TJ tuned out again at that point, having heard this rant multiple times before. It took another three go-arounds of why-cousin-Marius-was-the-worst before they reached the Spoon and TJ was relieved to be able to talk to someone else not about their family issues. Marty spotted ‘the boys’, as he had nicknamed them, from outside and waved at them through the glass, face lighting up when they waved back and motioned for them to come in. 

‘The boys’ were made up of Marty, TJ, Jonah, a cousin Marty liked called Emile and Walker. Jonah was the solid one, he always had your back, no matter what the situation. Emile was a few years older and wiser, sensible compared to the others and his hair a few shades darker than Marty’s, but they were unmistakably related due to typical St Pierre eye colour. Walker always had the tips of his hair dyed, whether it be blue or blonde or red, they were never natural and his relaxed demeanour made it easy for everyone to get along with him.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Marty said, as he slid into a booth next to Walker, “How has the day been so far,”

“Jonah caught a massive wave and ran over some poor German tourists then proceeded to tell them to shut up instead of saying sorry,”

TJ scrunched up his noise and looked at Jonah, “I thought you take German at school?”

Walker rolled his eyes, “He does,”

Jonah squawked indignantly, hunching forward his shoulders and sipping aggressively on his milkshake while Walker laughed at him along with Marty. Emile looked amused, in his uptight wiser-than-thou way.

The group continued to share stories, Marty of some poor child that did not want to get on a surfboard, Walker of how the group he had taken out were shell-shocked teachers and their students, TJ excitedly explaining the way he manoeuvred his board so that he was the only one that caught a wave and Emile’s ever funny stories of a drunk stag party that were all rugby players.

The Spoon waitresses refilled their drinks and brought them ice creams until TJ’s eye was caught by a group of three teenagers, probably a similar age to him, coming in the door. They were all giggling, two of them gasping out ‘no way!’ as the shorter girl told a story about something and then collapsing into giggles again. They were directed to the booth next to the boys and ordered baby taters and milkshakes, mouths quirking as they obviously attempted not to laugh.

“TJ? TJ!”

“What?”

“You’ve been staring at those kids for like five minutes, you know them or something?” Walker asked, leaning forward on his elbows, glancing his eyes to the side to point them out. Marty turned around to see, eyes narrowing as he looked at them.

“Nah, I don’t, just got distracted,” TJ replied

“I do,” Jonah piped up and wiped his mouth on a napkin, “I took them and one of their parents out earlier this week. Cool group,” The boy of the group caught Jonah’s eye and waved, nudging the other two who then waved as well, smiling at him. Jonah shot them the sunshine smile as Emile had called it, and waved back enthusiastically, “We should go over and talk to them,”

TJ immediately looked alarmed, “I thought we had a rule about clients and not being friends with them,”

Emile scoffed, “TJ, this is Jonah,”

Marty nodded, “Fair point,”

TJ groaned and got up, following the rest of the boys into the booth. They all crammed in and were sitting very close to each other, TJ next to the boy who he learned was called Cyrus, who was pointedly not looking at him. Weird kid.

They talked until half past five, finding out the boys and the ‘Good Hair Crew’ had more in common than they could have realised. The GHC, as they were known, had come to North Cornwall for the summer to stay at one of Buffy’s relative’s summer house. Upon finding out how big it was, Cyrus and Andi had been invited and then Andi’s parents  Bex and Bowie.

“Cyrus’ parents couldn’t come,” Buffy explained, although Cyrus was not looking too unhappy about it, “They had to work, you know, adult commitments and all that,”

TJ did know, he knew very well about ‘adult commitments and all that’. He couldn’t say Cyrus looked as upset about adult commitments as TJ felt, but kids with parental issues weren’t guaranteed to get along, he supposed. 

“Guys, it’s half five, we have to move it,” Emile cut in, looking apologetic but not completely, TJ knew he would rather be on the water than in any social situation and TJ was much the same. Marty and Jonah hugged them all and said their goodbyes, Walker winking at Andi, who rolled her eyes, and strolling off, leaving TJ to awkwardly get up from beside Cyrus, almost falling on him in the process, and wave as he hurried to catch up with the others.

At 6pm, three days a week, the boys took part in the local youth group, designed for the teenagers that lived in the holiday town full time to have a place to bond and learn from some of the veteran surfers about good technique and skill-building. Marty had only moved to the town when he was eleven, but was quickly inducted into the group. There was around twelve of them in total, each having grown up by the sea and learned to surf before they could even run. TJ liked them all. There were a few he avoided: Reed and Lester, known troublemakers, but otherwise he was friendly with everyone. He knew he gave off a standoffish vibe, contrasting to Marty and Jonah’s uncanny ability to befriend every person they met, but he joined in on the activities and ribbed the others when they fell off, laughing along with the teenage boy bullshit they said.

“Bro, I’m telling you, it was mad. You should have seen her, she totally winked back at me,” Will said, leaning back in his chair and spreading his legs, obviously pleased with himself

“Bella didn’t wink back at you, Will,” Emile said, leaning forward to take a handful of whatever snack had been provided today,

“Oh yeah? How would you know?”

Emile sighed and dropped his head, “I hate the lot of you sometimes,” He muttered, then pulled up the hem of his t-shirt to reveal a hickey above his left hip. They all gasped and Will blushed crimson, looking intently at the floor. The room erupted with questions. Where had he gotten that? Were he and Bella dating? How long ago had this happened?

TJ was the only one to stay silent, pained expression on his face, leg bouncing up and down, eyes to the ground. Marty did not take long to catch on, one look at TJ confirmed his suspicions. He got up and pulled TJ up with him from his seat in the circle,

“TJ and I are going to go for a walk,”

“You’re leaving already? The fun only just started!” One of the group called out,

“Yeah yeah,” Marty said, “Have fun getting off on my cousin’s make out stories, you sick bastards,”

The room yelled curses at him and Marty flipped them off, pulling TJ out of the village hall and into the street. As the door swung shut behind them, TJ took one last look back at Emile.

They wandered the streets in silence for a while, TJ with his hands jammed in his pockets, Marty silent and looking up at the stars. Eventually, they came to a stop in the park and sat down on the bench. TJ shivering as his wet hair dripped down his back and the air temperature cooling as the sun fell beneath the horizon.

“Marty, I’m gay,” TJ whispered, not able to look Marty in the eyes, kicking around the gravel by his feet. Marty gently touched TJ’s arm and smiled softly at him,

“TJ, I’m trans,” TJ’s eyes flew up to him, “You aren’t different, you aren’t weird or wrong. You’re my friend, I’ll always love you.”

TJ reflected the smile, and wiped at his eyes to save the tears fast gathering from falling,

“I love you too, Marty,” He said, “You’re the best friend a guy could ask for,”

Marty put his hand to his heart, “Why, thank you. I am truly touched,” TJ shoved him playfully,

“You’re still an insufferable dick though,”

Marty mock fell onto the floor and TJ howled with laughter, both of them gasping for air. Grinning at each other like madmen. Marty seemingly remembered something and turned back to serious,

“You like Emile?” He broached, not wanting to overstep. TJ hung his head and sighed,

“It’s stupid but, yeah,” Marty looked thoughtful for a minute,

“I guess all gays have to go through that unrequited crush phase,” He said, “Emile is straight,” TJ could have sworn he looked slightly apologetic but let it go,

“It’s so dumb, like more dumb than you could comprehend, but whenever he’s around I just wanna impress him. Which no one can do because he’s Emile fucking St Pierre, the god of this town, smooth and cool and handsome,” TJ said dreamily. Marty began to laugh at him,

“You’re so fucking stupid,  Teej , like how the fuck did you fall for my cousin. I’m supportive and everything, but if you haven’t noticed he’s a bit of a dick,”

TJ scowled, “You’re the dick,”

“Wow, so creative,”

“Shut up,”

They looked at each other and burst out laughing again, clutching their stomachs.

TJ woke up the next morning feeling better, feeling like he could face whatever the day threw at him. He dressed in his usual shorts and oversized t-shirt that he got from his surf school and ran a comb through his hair. It was best to leave the salt in; it made his hair wavy and slightly wild-looking, he liked it like that. Running down the steps, he jumped off from the one third from the bottom and landed on the wood floor of the kitchen with a heavy thud. 

“Want to make your presence known any louder,  Thellie ?” His dad said, amused and stood at the sink, washing up his bowl from breakfast – their dishwasher had broken a few months earlier and his dad hadn’t bothered to call anyone out to fix it yet. TJ huffed,

“Don’t call me that,” He said, “I’m not five,”

His dad chuckled and shook his head, then went back to scrubbing  weetabix out of his bowl. TJ grabbed a bowl from the cupboard then filled it with  shreddies and haphazardly poured almond milk over it, because one, the environment, and two, which kind of monster put in milk then cereal.

TJ knew exactly who did that: Marty. The little devil.

He was shovelling it into his mouth when Amber appeared at the bottom of the stairs, always silent as she moved around their three-up-two-down house. Her blonde hair was tumbling down her back, not yet put back in her normal ponytail.

“Morning Miles,” She said, “TJ,”

TJ grunted his reply and Miles returned the greeting, drying his cutlery. She sat down opposite TJ and began her own cereal, some trendy vegan muesli that TJ had no interest in eating. He didn’t eat beef or dairy, but he wasn’t completely vegan and he was fine with that because the Spoon served some excellent vegan ice cream and milkshakes that he could get behind. Definitely a loyal customer.

“Marty’s leading the three-day surf course over the next few days and he’s asked for some help so I’m going to join him, that cool?” TJ asked, looking over at his father who shrugged and made some kind affirmative noise and TJ leapt up. He shoved his bowl and spoon in the sink and dashed out of the door and around the side of his house where the surfboards were stored. TJ had multiple, different lengths and thicknesses depending on the weather and what he wanted to do. He grabbed his most stable one, yellow and long, and his wetsuit and left down the road towards the surf hut.

TJ spent his summers working and learning at the Big Blue Surf Academy, not a creative name, however it was the best surf school in TJ’s town. It was on the last road to the beach, one blue feature wall and a bench with one till and some car stickers piled up on. It was owned by two guys in their mid-twenties, Jake and Alfie, who only left town to go surf in a different country once a year. 

Pushing open the door to the shop, a bell jingled over his head and Jake looked up from pouring over his schedule,

“TJ! You here to help Marty?” He said, bright eyes questioning. TJ smiled in response,

“Of course, someone’s got to keep that idiot from drowning the customers,”

Jake laughed heartily, “Very true, very true. He’s in the back doing some weird ass bullshit with his board, feel free to go through,”

‘The back’ was an open-air courtyard with wetsuits lined up along the side, a cold shower and two changing rooms with questionable curtains as a ‘door’. There were some bamboo plants scattered around from being blown around by the wind a few days before that no one had bothered to fix yet.

TJ nodded and headed through the door to the right side of the bench, to where Marty was fiddling around with the fins on his board, tongue between his teeth, eyebrows furrowed. From what it looked like, he seemed to be changing the curve to be more angular, to make it move faster? Who knew, not TJ.

When Marty saw TJ staring at him, he looked up,

“Hey TJ,”

“What the fuck are you doing,”

“Trying to go faster than you,”

“The only person that’s faster than me is Emile, you aren’t going faster than me, you stupid dick,”

“I hate you so much-,”

They were interrupted by a group of loud teenagers joking with Alfie and being taken into the back where Marty and TJ were. There were six of them, a few older and younger than the two boys but mostly the same age. Cyrus, Andi and Buffy were among them, grinning at Alfie jokingly tripping on a surfboard.

“St Pierre, you just leave boards out to kill people?!” He yelled at Marty, walking through the door, holding his own board,

“Only to kill you Alfie,” He replied and stood up, turning to face the group, “I’m Martine, but you can call me Marty, I’m going to be your instructor these three day and this guy over here,” He grabbed TJ around the waist, “Is TJ Kippen, he’s gonna help,”

The group said hello and Alfie left them to go talk to Jake about some business stuff that TJ had no interest in understanding. Maths was not his thing, especially not financial maths.

Being excellent at talking to people, Marty found running these things incredibly easy. He lived off the attention and the jokes, screaming encouragement when people stood up for the first time, and when they fell off. TJ would be in awe of him, always.

“Alright everyone, I’m going to set some ground rules and housekeeping just to keep us all nice and safe. One, we respect one another, no matter who we are or where we come from, two, you listen to me exactly, if I tell you to get out, you bloody better get out, three, any negativity and we’ll be having words. Everyone got it?”

Cyrus put up his hand.

“What sort of words for number three?” He tilted his head to the side, nose scrunched with a smear of sun cream that hadn’t been rubbed in down the centre. TJ thought he looked adorable.

Marty smiled fiendishly, “Bad, bad words, Cyrus. Now everyone grab a wetsuit and two boards between two and lets head down to the beach!”

Once they got to the beach, Marty ran through the instructions and TJ critiqued and corrected where he needed to. A lot of the stuff they’d fix on the water as the group got the hang of it. That was usually how it went with this age group.

Buffy was good. Really good. Up straight away with barely any help, Marty winked at her and complimented her on her style. She smiled back, and said ‘why thank you’ and Marty laughed, shoving her back into the water and telling her to go again.

TJ, meanwhile, was having less fun. He was trying to help some girl called Kira up onto her board but she was just awful and she kept throwing herself onto him, clinging to him like the water wasn’t four foot deep and she could stand perfectly well by herself.

“TJ will you just push me again? I think I’ll get it this time,” Inwardly, TJ rolled his eyes, but did his duties and shoved her forward on the board when a  sizable wave came.

While he was waiting around for Kira to come back, Cyrus yelling his name caught his attention,

“TJ! TJ! Can you help me?” Cyrus shouted, waving his arms at TJ a few metres across from him. His mouth was grimacing and his eyes were wide and fearful.

Immediately, TJ leapt into action and started to front-crawl at full power over to Cyrus, arms pumping over his head and legs kicking fast.

“Hey what’s wrong?” He said, barely out of breath, appearing in the water next to Cyrus. Cyrus seemed shocked. His cheeks were bright red and he was biting his lip,

“Um, my leash is caught around my feet and I can’t move,” He said quietly, wringing his hands.

“You’re so cute,” TJ said, grinning, and dove under the water to pull the leash free. It took some wrangling, but eventually TJ got it out and tied it back onto Cyrus’ right ankle,

“I think you’re cute too,” Cyrus whispered when he came back up out of the water. They stood tantalisingly close together, so that TJ could feel how Cyrus’ warm breath on his face and see the ocean droplets on the skin of his face. TJ smiled, and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck,

“YO LOVEBIRDS, THE REST OF US ARE WAITING ON YOU HERE,” Marty screamed from the beach, five other members of the group sitting on the sand next to him.

TJ jumped back abruptly, face smoothed over into his normal cool expression,

“Let’s get back,” He said, Cyrus following close behind. The water felt heaver on his legs as he waded towards Marty, board tucked under his right arm. Flirting with Cyrus had not been part of today’s itinerary, in fact, it had never been part of any itinerary. It was counterproductive, he was still closeted, well, mostly, and he wanted it to stay that way.

Lunch was a quiet affair. They all wolfed down ham sandwiches Marty had brought in his kit bag, lacking energy from spending a morning on the water. The sandwiches weren’t top quality, but they filled a gap that TJ desperately needed filling.

Cyrus was having a great time, he wasn’t the best surfer but it was a physical activity that was fun and rewarding, unlike Buffy’s basketball. Exercise was adamantly not his thing; he was skinny and lean. Unlike Marty and TJ, his shoulders hadn’t widened out yet, leaving him looking a lot smaller than other boys his age. His mother said it would come with time, and he supposed she was probably right, but right now it did nothing for his self-esteem.

“So Buffy, you ever surf before this?” Marty said, eyes glinting. She laughed,

“No, actually, we don’t live near a beach back home, the largest water source is a lake,” Andi nodded to what she said, winking at Cyrus and mouthing something about the two of them flirting. He rolled his eyes at them.

It was at that point that TJ giggled, hiding his mouth behind his hand. He glanced at Cyrus and raised his eyebrows while looking at Buffy and Marty, Andi cottoned on and started giggling as well, which set of Cyrus and soon enough the three of them were agonisingly trying not to be noticed by the other two.

“I feel like I've missed out on something here,” Marty said, looking suspiciously at the three of them. Buffy was glaring daggers at her two friends while TJ tried to calm down by taking deep breaths in.

“Why don’t we just,” He started before laughing as Andi tried to act innocent, “Why don’t we just get back in the water,”

Marty decided to let it go, “Yeah, c’mon everyone!”

The afternoon passed uneventfully, no rescues of major traumatic incidents that TJ had to get involved in. He helped some of the group stand up, told them which waves to get on and had a race with Marty. He won, obviously, Marty would never beat him. He almost got sunburned from not being careful enough and Marty laughed at him, which started off a massive water fight at the end of the session.

Soaked and beginning to get cold, the group dispersed at the shop after putting the boards and wetsuits away. Marty and TJ would still be there for another half hour to clean everything of the sand it accumulated during the day. They worked in a tentative silence, TJ thinking hard,

“Can I ask you a question?” He looked up nervously from scrubbing a surfboard,

“’Course,” Marty replied,

“When you moved here when you were eleven, was that because you needed a new start, because you were trans?”

Marty sighed and put down the wetsuit he was rinsing, “Yeah, some of my family already lived here and my mum likes the sea, so it was a natural decision,”

“Did you want to move?”

“I guess so? I was happy, but I would have been fine to move school districts, not whole countries. Emile persuaded my mum it was a good idea,” He explained,

“And you take testosterone? That’s why you don’t have a... a female body?”

“Yeah, I’m on T, courtesy to my father’s private health insurance, and some other hormone suppressants. I’m lucky I'm tall and my voice is as deep as yours, not every trans  ftm person gets that.”

TJ nodded, he wasn’t educated on trans issues in any way, no one in his very limited family had ever talked about it. He wanted to learn though, be a good ally to Marty as Marty was to him.

“How did your family take it?” TJ inquired, this was the part he was most interested in,

“Surprisingly well, actually, you know they are a bunch of Catholics so I wasn’t expecting them to understand right away, and they didn’t, but they wanted to support me. Emile’s parents weren’t happy, but he sat them down and basically gave them an ultimatum. He hasn’t told me what he said but they haven’t been transphobic or anything since,” Marty shrugged, “I’m fortunate,”

TJ took in the new information, moving on to scrub the next board. 

“Also how about inviting Buffy, Andi and Cyrus to the party on Friday at Rosie’s?”

Rosie’s was the local beach café that served cheap, filling food to a majority of the town. Everyone knew the waiters and waitresses on a first name basis and the owner readily came out to talk to the customers when he got bored. It had a friendly vibe, with black and white tiles and more tables than TJ could bother counting, and every other Friday they hosted a disco/party for the teenagers who lived and were staying in town. TJ had been going for years now, content to drink diet coke and dance with Marty till the early morning, then stumble back to his house and foolishly attempt to not wake up his father as he climbed their creaking stairs to his bedroom.

“Yeah, let’s invite them.”

*

The second day of surfing was trying to go as fast as possible, using the least amount of energy. It was in TJ’s opinion, the most fun day for him and for the group. Essentially, he could show off and make Marty mad for 7 hours and nobody could complain.

Emile appeared around 2pm for the last two hours to help out. Seeing as he was older and stronger, he made sure everyone caught a good wave and stood up by yelling encouragements and helping them climb onto their boards when the water got deep. Looking on admiringly, TJ didn’t see Cyrus coming full speed towards him on his board.

“TJ LOOK OUT!” Cyrus shouted frantically, board beginning to wobble side to side as Cyrus came unstable from not having his arms out. TJ wasn’t listening, too focused on Emile’s biceps as he lifted a thirteen-year-old onto a board, “TJ! TJ! MOVE!”

Cyrus got closer and closer, metres ticking down, board speeding towards TJ. Marty saw what was happening and started yelling too, but realised TJ wasn’t listening and yelled at Cyrus,

“CYRUS JUMP OFF THE BOARD!”

Just at the last second, Cyrus threw himself off the side of the board with so much force that the board slid in the other direction, narrowly missing TJ’s chest. He crashed into the water and sent spray everywhere, pouring sea water over TJ who turned around to see the aftermath of the almost-collision.

Bobbing up out of the water, TJ helped Cyrus up,

“Oh my god, Cy, I’m so sorry,” He said, grabbing the other boy’s shoulders. Cyrus coughed,

“It’s fine,” He said, “You were preoccupied,”

Marty had dashed over and looked murderous and amused at the same time, giving TJ a look that meant something along the lines of ‘you dumb dickhead’.

“You okay, Cyrus?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry,” He pushed his wet hair off his forehead, smoothing it down out of his eyes.

“Okay great, well we’ve only got fifteen minutes left so why don’t you and TJ go back up to the shop and Emile and I can finish up here,” Marty said, and TJ scowled at him. Stupid bastard knew exactly what he was doing. Cyrus, however, had not caught on,

“Sure, c’mon TJ,” He grabbed his board and beckoned for TJ to come with him out of the water. Reluctantly, TJ did the same, hurrying to fall into step with Cyrus.

They found out they got on surprisingly well on the walk back. They both liked the same music, and could easily tease each other without either one taking it seriously. For TJ, it was a breath of fresh air. He spent so long worrying about what people thought of him, how he presented himself, how he spoke, but Cyrus was carefree and that demeanour was contagious. He was brilliant.

They went around the alley to the side of the shop and in the gate at the back, TJ unlocking it from the top, tall enough to reach over the gate and slid the bolt back, then kicking it open and walking through, Cyrus on his tail. They stacked up their boards on the pile Jake had created earlier in the day, and Cyrus went into one of the changing rooms to put his clothes back on.

TJ unzipped his wet suit and pulled the top half down and threw on a branded t-shirt for the shop that was lying around, they had so many nobody would miss it. There was a commotion at the gate and the rest of the group piled through, Emile at the back, laughing and shaking his head in a move that normally would have made TJ’s heart leap, but it didn’t. Strange.

The group was quick to get out of their wetsuits, because even though they kept you warm, they felt gross when you weren’t in the water. Emile took each one, rinsed them and hung them up while Marty and TJ washed the boards of the salt. Eventually, it was only Cyrus and Buffy left waiting for Andi to finish changing, who’d gone in last as she’d insisted everyone else go in front of her. 

“Tomorrow Rosie’s has a disco kinda party thing for the teenagers, we thought you might want to come?” Marty said, standing up and stretching his arms above his head, looking at Buffy. She smiled coyly with a hint of menace,

“Oh yeah? And why are you telling us this and not the others?”

Marty gave his shit-eating grin to TJ who mentally braced himself for whatever he was about to say, 

“We like you guys,” He paused, “Especially,” And winked. TJ groaned and facepalmed,

“You are my least favourite person I know,” He said and Cyrus laughed,

“You two are honestly the funniest couple of best friends I’ve ever met, I swear,”

“We aren’t funny,” “We are so funny,”

They said at the same time, then looked at each other and collapsed into fits of giggles,

“I can’t breathe oh my god,” Marty choked out, TJ wiping his eyes of tears that had formed. 

“Hi everyone,” Emile appeared from the shower, brown hair falling into his tan face, “Marty, _ta __maman_ _te_ _veut__ à la __maison__, __elle_ _insiste_ _sur_ _quelque__ chose,”_

_“__Oui__, j’y __retournerai_ _maintenant__,”_

_ “Okay,” _

Marty grabbed his bag, nodded to them all and speed-walked off with Emile following him, leaving a confused group of teenagers in their wake. Cyrus spoke up first,

“They speak French?”

“They moved here from France when Marty was eleven, his full name is Martine St Pierre. Emile is his cousin,” TJ explained and the three of them nodded, Andi now out of the changing room, falling into an uncomfortable silence.

“Well, we should head off, you know, have dinner,” Andi broke it, and Buffy made a noise of agreement,

“Why don’t you two go and I'll catch up?”

Andi and Buffy glanced at each other, “Sure,” Buffy said suspiciously, and left the two boys to it, Andi walking beside her,

“You’ll come to the party?!” TJ called after them,

“Of course!” They chorused in reply.

Cyrus stood analysing TJ for a moment, taking in his facial features, wide nose and lips, prominent cheekbones and thick, mousy coloured eyebrows. He was a mystery to Cyrus, an attractive mystery, a few inches taller than him with wider hips and shoulders, Cyrus thought he was one of the most handsome boys he had ever seen. Living with four psychologists though, he could see that TJ was pained and bereaved, a piece of him splintered and jaggedly put back together, incorrectly so that the spikes still cut him from time to time, bringing back flashes of unwanted emotions and memories.

He was intriguing, one thing Cyrus loved was a problem able to be solved, “I wanted to talk to you about something,” He said, and TJ hummed, sitting back on his knees and putting down his sponge,

“What?”

“I’m gay,”

“Me too,” TJ replied quietly, although looking Cyrus in the eyes, unwaveringly sincere,

“Cool, by the way I'm wearing a blue shirt to the party so you can’t wear one,”

TJ scoffed, “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“Not only that, I wanted to say I’m here for you if you ever need to talk about something,” He got a piece of paper out of his pocket, “Here’s my number”

TJ reached out and took it, brushing his fingers against Cyrus’ and studying him for a second, “Thank-you, this means a lot,”

“No problem,” Cyrus smiled, “I should probably get going,”

“Yeah, yeah of course, see you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow!”

_ 22:07 _

** TJ: hey is this cyrus? **

Cyrus: yeah it is haha!!

** TJ: cool, saved you as gay best friend **

Cyrus: omg I have u saved as homo surf instructor

** TJ: oh my god... **

Cyrus: c’mon its hilarious!!

** TJ: no its not, go to sleep **

Cyrus: yeah probably should do that lol  gn <33

** TJ:  ** ** gn ** ** <3 **

The next day TJ got to the shop early to find Cyrus waiting outside, moving his weight from foot to foot and glancing around with his eyes. He was wearing khaki shorts and a striped blue and white t-shirt that looked like it had faded in the wash.

“Hey Cyrus,” TJ said, concerned as to why he was alone, “What are you doing here this early?”

“I thought I would come and help you get ready? I couldn’t sleep,”

TJ fumbled around for the keys in his pocket, “Yeah, if you want to, Marty’s not coming in until later so that would be great,”

“Is this about what happened yesterday?” Cyrus inquired,

“Yeah, some Catholic bullshit that his mum lost her rosary or something and they stayed up all night looking for it, turns out it was in her jewellery cabinet all along,”

“Yikes,” Cyrus said and sucked in air between his teeth, “I’m Jewish and I lost my  kippah a few days before my bar-mitzvah, you can imagine the sort of turmoil my family was in,”

TJ nodded, “My family isn’t religious, well my biological family isn’t, so I guess I'm lucky I don’t have to deal with things like that,” TJ replied, sliding the key in the lock and turning it around, jiggling the door handle to try and get it to open,

“You’re adopted?”

“No, I have three step-siblings, all older, my dad had two children with his first wife, one with his second and then me with his third. My two oldest step sisters are half-Indian, so they’re Sikh, but I don’t see them very often, they have a difficult relationship with my dad,”

“Because he’s white?” Cyrus asked, bemused at TJ’ struggling to open the door,

“They don’t feel like he understands their issues, they think he’s a bad person for something he did a long time ago. There are a lot of reasons,” TJ explained, finally opening the door and motioning for Cyrus to walk through first. He headed straight to the back, standing to the side so TJ could open the next door,

“What about your other step-sibling?”

“She’s called Amber, she’s two years older than me but we don’t speak much, her mum is super wealthy so she goes to some boarding school up in London, I only see her in the holidays,” The lock clicked and the door swung open, leading to the stone patio out the back. TJ went through first and directed Cyrus to start getting out the wetsuits out of the overnight store,

“What about your mom?

TJ froze. What about his mum? So many things about his mum, “She passed away,” He said shortly.

Cyrus looked at TJ, but continued doing his job, “That must have been hard for you and your dad,”

Swallowing, TJ picked his words carefully, “It was. My dad is... different now,”

Cyrus knew this intimately; his parents had explained it to him. Grief was a nasty, cheating player in the game of life, popping up spin your life completely out of balance and lingering in the shadows of your mind, taunting and teasing you away from happiness,

“He thought she was the love of his life. Can you imagine marrying three times just to have your ‘soulmate’ taken from you?” TJ continued, shaking his head,

“What about you? How do you feel about it?”

TJ sighed, “I was ten, I remember her. All of her. Her smile was infectious, you could always hear her laughing from upstairs in the house, and she’d yell at me to come down and make my dad repeat the joke, then laugh some more so that you couldn’t help but join in, even if it wasn’t that funny. She’d sit with me on the beach, point at the sea and say ‘You see that Theo? The ocean is more powerful than all of us, more loud, more alive... respect it and it will respect you’.”

“She sounds like she was incredible,” Cyrus moved over and laid his hand gently on TJ’s shoulder, squeezing lightly,

“She drowned,” He whispered, “She fucking drowned. All that bullshit about respecting the ocean isn’t true, Cyrus, she loved the sea more than anyone, and it still took her,” Tears streamed down his face, unable to stop them and sobbed, hands aggressively rubbing at his eyes to try and combat the waves.

Cyrus’ heart ached for this boy who’d lost so much. One parent being physically dead is hard, but when your other withdraws into themselves, mourning for their lost love, that hurts like a punch in the gut. Kneeling down, Cyrus’ took TJ’s hands in his own, gently drawing circles on the tops with his fingers, and then wrapping his arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug. TJ sobbed onto his shoulder, making his t-shirt wet, and fisted his hands in the material,

“You’re so strong, TJ,” Cyrus said lowly, “So fucking strong,”

“Th-thank-you, Cy,” Cyrus’ heart did something funny and his stomach twisted into knots, making his breath catch in his throat, “We should probably keep getting the stuff out,”

TJ wiped the back of his hand across his face and then through his hair, gripping it tighter than he usually would and took a deep breath, calming himself. Cyrus nodded, sensing the end of the conversation and went back to hauling damp wetsuits out of the wooden cabinet that seemed like a DIY project gone slightly wrong.

It was ten more minutes until the rest of the group arrived, familiar with the routine and quickly getting ready to go out on to the water. Andi and Buffy looked Cyrus over questioningly, but he waved his hand and they nodded, leaving it be. He didn’t need to explain what had happened.

“Right guys, today Jonah and Walker are coming with us as we are doing races!” TJ clapped his hands together and the group yelled their excitement, and Walker and Jonah came through the door to the back waving their hands over their heads,

“Today’s going to be brilliant!” Walker shouted and they all screamed back, TJ laughing at their hysterics, “I’m Walker,”

“I’m Jonah, and I’m going to be your freestyle dance teacher,” He then broke in to some seriously dubious dance moves which had Walker tugging on his shirt and saying ‘not cool man’, but that the others seem to enjoy.

“Alright enough,” TJ said brusquely, and Jonah and Walker made ‘ooh’ sounds which earned them a stern glare, “Marty’s coming in later, so he will be here,” He winked at Buffy who rolled her eyes, “But we’re going to head down to the water now, let’s go!”

Screaming again, they piled out of the door and down to the beach, the group laughing and joking with Walker and Jonah as they went. TJ knew this day was going to be great, he grinned at Cyrus who sent him an identical one, laughing as TJ rolled his eyes and pointed at the other two instructors.

The races were all extraordinary. TJ clapped and screamed and laughed as people proved themselves and fell off, some of them jumping off with their exploding happiness at winning. The three days had been great because the group was brilliant, no one was too cocky or shy, and they all got along fine. Cyrus, however, had made it extra special. Lighting up the dark parts with his iridescent smile, splashing TJ with water when he spaced out and cackling when TJ angrily glared back at him, he had been a perfect antidote to TJ’s undercurrent of misery. Marty had even commented on it, telling him how much more carefree he seemed, how much the change was putting all their friends in a better mood as well, which is why Emile had to go and ruin it.

He had shown up near the end of the session like the day before, but instead of being useful he had just teased him and Marty for the entire time, barely helping any of the group,

“Hey Marty, you made out with TJ last week? That’s why you were late to your shift on Friday?” He laughed, arms crossed over his chest, standing knee deep in the water with only his swimming trunks on.

TJ didn’t know why he’d taken this line of attack, normally it was pretty harmless, the teasing, but today it was plain mean. He looked over to Marty, who’s cheeks had turned a sharp red and had his hands on his hips glaring at Emile,

“Shut up, Emile,” He bit out,

Emile smirked, “So you did?”

TJ stayed silent, when Emile got like this it wasn’t to annoy to TJ, it was to teach Marty a lesson, which TJ seemed to be realising now.

“It doesn’t matter if I did or didn’t, Emile, be quiet,”

Cyrus ears pricked up at the sign of trouble, he hadn’t been doing much, just bobbing around on the water but carefully observed the scene a few metres away from him. Emile had one side of his lip pulled up in a mocking expression, staring coolly at Marty. Marty did not look as cool. His chest was rising and falling increasingly fast, hands gripping his hips painfully, fingers pulled together. He stood a metre away from TJ, who was watching, although, he wasn’t making any noise. Just silently listening, not reacting at all.

“You seem to be awfully touchy about this,” Emile knew he was getting close to the end of Marty’s temper, and Cyrus and TJ knew it too. Marty opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by TJ making the decision to jump in,

“Hey it’s near the end of the session, why don’t we all head back to the beach, Emile you can go and get Jonah and Walker from in the deep water,” Emile realised he had lost the game and shot TJ a vicious glare and as he waded off and TJ looked at his back, he felt nothing. What Emile had done was cruel, and TJ felt nothing for him.

Marty’s entire body shivered, and he let himself unclench his hands and release the tenseness in his shoulders, breathing out deeply. He stood there with his eyes closed for a few seconds, then gave TJ a thankful glance which TJ returned and both of them left the water, Cyrus close behind. He was shaken by what he had witnessed, the way Emile went after Marty and TJ then stepping in. It begged the question as to why it took TJ so long in the first place, why had he stayed out of it until the very end? Cyrus was sure he had his reasons, TJ knew the two family members a lot better than he did, so who was he to make a judgement.

The group trudged back to the shop, weary and tired, sand dropping off their skin with every heavy footfall,

“You still coming to the party later?” TJ asked Cyrus, standing next to him carrying two boards,

“Are you kidding? Of course!” Cyrus exclaimed, “We never get to go to parties back home,”

TJ giggled, “Okay then,” He pushed open the gate and the group walked back in, setting down the boards and disappearing into the changing rooms to put on warmer clothes.

“Oh my God, TJ let me help you,” Amber stood in the doorway to his bedroom, horrified expression on her face. She was watching him pick out outfits for the party and she was not impressed. His dress sense was five years off the mark. TJ sent her an agitated look,

“What now?”

“Your clothes, they are a disaster, let me choose,” She strutted into his room and studied his wardrobe intensely,

“Why do you care so much?” He grumped, crossing his arms,

“I heard you’re trying to impress someone, so I thought I would make a special effort to help you,” She threw a grey t-shirt across the room, wrinkling her nose

TJ was astounded, “How did you hear that?”

“I talk to people in this town, y’know,” She said and picked up a pair of black jeans with rips, “These,” She pointed at them,

TJ raised an eyebrow, “Who do you talk to in this town?”

“Okay fine, one of the St Pierre’s is actually quite cool, she’s called Iris, I talk to her. She said Marty has been going on about how happy you’ve been this week so I connected the dots,”

“You didn’t connect shit,”

“And you aren’t funny, now try these on,” She handed him the ripped jeans and a mint t-shirt with a dark blue jacket. He took them reluctantly and wandered off to the bathroom to change, and when he looked in the mirror, he was impressed. He looked sleek and cool, and dare he say it, handsome.

“Okay Amber, you did a good job,” He admitted, walking back into his room, she looked him up and down and hummed,

“Don’t do anything with your hair, it looks great,”

“No gel?”

“No gel.”

As Cyrus got ready, he  contemplated the week he ’d  had. He’d gone from slightly melancholy and lonely, to developing one of the most serious crushed he’d ever had. There was no use denying it, TJ had snuck into his heart from day one, making it flutter uncontrollably. He’d never understood how Andi had felt before when she talked about her past crushes and relationships she always had, but now he truly understood her excitement  when she would interact with her crush , the blushes she described a permanent feature of Cyrus’ life around TJ. The party would be one of the last times to impress him, as the Good Hair Crew left England to fly back to the US on Sunday, an overnight flight to give them a week before they started back at school.

He slid his blue shirt over his shoulders and buttoned it up carefully, straining to control his fingers from shaking . The blue was more of a navy colour with white details around the cuffs and collar, careful embroidery to enhance the simpl e design with navy buttons, not too big or small, just perfect to match the subtle shape of it.  It was the final piece of his outfit, apart from his shoes, and it had been a gift from his grandmother. His good luck token from her.  He knew she was with him when he wore it, and he hoped she was proud of him.

“Cyrus! Get down here, we need to go,” Buffy yelled up the stairs, already waiting at the door with Andi . Cyrus took a deep breath in and rushed down stairs and shoved on some white trainers while Andi’s mom started the car to drive them to Rosie’s. 

It took five minutes to get there, and the party was already in full swing , drinks being handed out and people jumping around on the dance floor to some summer track Cyrus hadn’t heard before. Andi and Buffy flanked him as they walked in, each  one holding each arm.

The heat struck them across the face, the lights and the body heat has combined to create some sick temperature that Cyrus was not enjoying, and on top of that, he couldn’t find TJ. He had been standing at the bar for twenty minutes and there was still no sign of him , Andi and Buffy had found other people to talk to but Cyrus was determined to wait it out.

Another twenty minutes passed. Still no TJ or Marty.

Another ten.

Then Cyrus remembered he had TJ’s phone number, how stupid could he get?

_ 21:42 _

Cyrus: hey, where are you? at the party and can’t see u lol

** TJ: you’re at the bar? **

Cyrus: yeh

** TJ: there’s a garden, i’ll send marty round to get u **

Apparently he could get more stupid. A garden?! He hadn’t even thought of a garden. Marty materialised next to him and nudged him with his elbow, grabbing his arm and weaving through the crowd towards a  concealed door near the back of the main room,

“Go through here, I’m going to talk to Buffy,” Marty shouted over the music into his ear and shoved him through, giving him a thumbs up.

The garden was a small, pebbled  garden. It had black painted benches set up around the edge and ridiculously green bushes that had been perfectly pruned into shape between the rows of lavender plants. In the day, it was probably full of bees and other insects, pollinating and  keeping the earth alive.

TJ sat hunched over on one of the far benches, opposite to the door, peering down at his phone,

“Hey  Teej ,” Cyrus called out and TJ ’s head shot up and he smiled that billion dollar smile that made Cyrus’ heart pump.  A few long strides had him in front of Cyrus, all 5’10 of him , eyes twinkling in the low light,

“So this is the blue shirt?” He said, reaching out to touch the collar, “It’s nice,” He looked Cyrus directly in the eyes and leaned into his space, veering forward. He caught a whiff of Cyrus’ cologne,  manly but a hint of something extra, something unusual and fun. It suited him perfectly. 

“You look,” Cyrus cleared his throat, TJ’s face only centimetres from his own, “You look really good, this is a great outfit,”

“Amber picked it out, apparently I have a dress sense ‘five years off the mark’,” Cyrus giggled,

“Harsh,”  TJ laughed with him, tilting his head to the side,

“She probably has a point,”

Their laughter died out. They stood face to face, toes almost touching , warm breath mingling in the air in front of them.  TJ’s eyes betrayed him and flicked down to Cyrus’ lips and back up to his eyes, Cyrus’ heart hammering in his chest, beating so hard he thought TJ must be able to hear it.

“I-,” TJ started,

“Do it,” Cyrus said and leaned in, kissing Tj gently on the lips, hand resting on his waist, he lingered for a moment,

“You’re incredible,” TJ said quietly, “You’re an actual mir acle,”

“I’m not, I think you’re just seeing yourself for the first time the way everyone else does,”

“Maybe I am, but right now I wanna dance with the handsome boy that likes me, so let’s fucking go,”

Cyrus cheered and laughed, TJ taking his hand and dragging him back into the  thick of the party.

The rest of the night was spent dancing together, placing kisses on each other’s foreheads, cheeks, lips, wherever they could reach and screaming the lyrics to some throwback songs once it got later. Cyrus’  stomach hurt from laughing so much and TJ’s cheeks were in more pain than he ever though t they could feel but it had been one of the best nights of his life .

They stood outside Rosie’s, red sign flickering in the background,  Harry Style’s sweet creature drifting out to them and the warm lights from the rest of town painting their faces in an ethereal glow. They both knew this moment was coming. It was inevitable. They lived in different countries, had totally different lives,

“I’m going to miss you,” TJ said , voice hoarse and low, tears threatening to fall ,

Cyrus gave him a watery smile, “I’m going to miss you too, ”

“Yeah,”

“I should probably,” Cyrus paused to get a hold of himself, breathing in deeply, “I should probably get going,” He took a step back out of TJ’s arms, and another and another. TJ couldn’t say anything as he watched him go, words choked and stuck in his throat, unable to make it past the block there. If he said anything, the tears would pour and he would be left sobbing on the pavement.

Before Cyrus disappeared around the corner of the road, he took one last look back at TJ and waved one hand. TJ raised his right hand as Cyrus hurried around the corner, wrapping his arms around his slight body.

TJ stood there for  what felt like forever, alone on a street corner as the air got colder and partygoers drifted out from Rosie’s paying him no mind as they  ambled back home with their friends. 

“Hey man,” Marty said, “I have an idea,” He held out his phone to TJ who scrolled through, skim reading the article that was open,

“You’re joking,” He said, astonished and disbelieving,

“Nope,” Marty said gleefully, popping the p, “I applied for both of us last night, and got this e-mail back this evening,” He flicked over on to another tab and handed the phone back to TJ,

“Oh my god,” He said, “Marty you’re a genius,”

“I know,” He gave TJ his sleazy smile and got a playful punch to the shoulder in return,

“Let’s fucking do this.”

It was the first day of school and Cyrus was already feeling weary , jet lag still affecting his tragic sleep schedule.  He hadn’t put much care into his outfit as he usually would, although he still looked great, he had no interest in dressing up for anyone. Or at least, the one person who he would do that for was miles away, not going to see Cyrus like this. 

He trudged into school with his satchel to be greeted by Andi, looking a lot less haggard than him,

“First day of junior year let’s go!” She said, hugging Cyrus tightly, “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit,” He replied, unloading books into his locker , having taken them home for summer.

Buffy came bounding down the corridor, practically bouncing of the walls,

“Guys you are never going to believe what I just saw,” She said, hop ping from foot to foot and clutching the straps of her bag , “Come with me,”

She grabbed their hands and tugged then down the corridor, Cyrus almost falling over in the process. Letting go, she told them to keep up and  close to ran towards reception, Cyrus stumbling through crowds of high school students to keep up with her , apologising to the ones who had the energy to look offended.

Cyrus stopped dead. The universe had to be playing tricks on him. Or maybe he was hallucinating from lack of sleep,

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Andi said, eyes fixed on the people in reception,

“TJ,” Cyrus breathed out, and moved towards the door, like a magnet was pulling him towards the other boy.  He flung open the door and TJ turned around, radiant smile on his face, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I’m an  _ exchange  _ student,” He said, winking and pulled Cyrus into a hug. He still wasn’t comprehending the situation yet but he was in TJ’s arms and that was all that mattered,

“I thought I would never see you again,” Cyrus said, looking up to TJ’s face,

“ Me too, but Marty had applied for us to come here this year, and we got in. I am so happy right now,” TJ said , holding Cyrus tighter,

“You’re here for the whole year?”

“For the last two, I’m doing what we call college here instead of in England,” TJ explained and Cyrus beamed,

“ I could kiss you right now, I’m going to explode from sheer joy,” 

“You gonna do it or what?” TJ asked, stepping out of reception and into the corridor. Cyrus laughed and pressed his lips to TJ’s, feeling at peace. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! i am very proud of this, it's the longest thing i've ever written. i started yr11 today and am very upset about to it, so i'd love it if you left me a nice comment to read!! (guilt trip notwithstanding). i have two other tyres fics if u wanna read them,  
until next time,  
greta x


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